海角大神

For years, families struck a balance between store-bought and homemade Halloween costumes. But these days, do-it-yourself Halloween costumes are聽out; store-bought costumes are a聽$2.87 billion聽business.聽

What does this mean for consumers? Well, for one thing, we鈥檙e seeing a lot of costumes that reproduce tired gender stereotypes. Sex sells, and in an $8 billion seasonal industry, it seems designers and retailers are maximizing profits by creating more and more 鈥渟exy鈥� costumes for women and girls.

In today鈥檚 relatively new, hyper-commercial Halloween, it鈥檚 become an expectation for females to dress in sexually provocative ways 鈥� even when costumed as, say, a children鈥檚 cartoon character, like聽Nemo from聽"Finding Nemo," or a mundanely macabre item like a body bag.聽Are you a man? Your body bag Halloween costume will resemble an actual body bag. Are you a woman? The ladies鈥� version of a body bag costume will be (drum roll鈥�) a skimpy dress with a hood that zips over your head.聽Seriously.

Adding insult to injury, the definition of 鈥渟exy鈥� applied to the majority of women鈥檚 Halloween costumes is appallingly narrow. Tiny dresses with a lot of revealed skin available in a very limited range of sizes make it clear: Mainstream, readily-available 鈥渟exy鈥� costumes aren鈥檛 being made for the full-figured, despite the fact that a聽size 14聽is the average American woman鈥檚 size.

The typical sexy Halloween costumes divide women and shortchange young girls by conveying the same old message: If you don鈥檛 fit our society鈥檚 narrow beauty ideal, this culture doesn鈥檛 want to think of you as being sexually desirable. So you鈥檇 better focus on your appearance above all else. Note that even the new聽鈥渟exy鈥� costume for Ursula the Sea Witch聽from聽The Little Mermaid聽is scaled down, available in tiny sizes, even though the original character from the film is a confident, full-figured woman 鈥� which seems really incongruous.

Unfortunately, as parents of young girls know, today鈥檚 girls鈥� Halloween costumes are highly sexualized, too. This reinforces the same unhealthy messages about what female bodies are considered desirable and undesirable in our culture.

Although the issue is not just with costumes modeled after sexualized dolls, Bratz and Monster High costumes are a perennial source of concern; several years ago, in her book "The Lolita Effect," Gigi Durham wrote:

"Last Halloween, a five-year-old girl showed up at my doorstep decked out in a tube top, gauzy miniskirt, platform shoes, and glittering eye shadow. The outfit projected a rather tawdry adult sexuality. 鈥淚鈥檓 a Bratz!鈥� the tot piped up proudly, brandishing a look-alike doll clutched in her chubby fist. I had an instant, dizzying flashback to an image of a child prostitute I had seen in Cambodia, dressed in a disturbingly similar outfit."

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But, no 鈥� even the most inane girls鈥� costume ideas are rendered in skimpy styles, calculated to be provocative. From sexy witches and sexy vampires to sexy聽crayons, costumes that encourage young girls to sexualize themselves are everywhere.

No wonder some are complaining that Halloween has turned into聽鈥淗appy Sexualize our Daughters Season.鈥澛燯gh.

海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best family and parenting bloggers out there. Our contributing and guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor, and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs.聽Rebecca Hains blogs at聽rebeccahains.wordpress.com.